BrrrrrrrHEmia, BrrrrrrHEmia

Ok , that's a play on 'Bohemia, Bohemia", that song from RENT.

Most of my dear 5 or 6 readers know that I live in a townhouse complex called Bohemia. This is day 3 that we have been watching as frustrated plumbers come and go, trying to provide life support to a boiler that is well, basically internally hemorrhaging.. so , forthwith, no hot water. Or warm water.

I never realized HOW MUCH hot water is required to make cold water feel less than Bloody Ice Cold. I boiled up two huge pots and they barely made a difference for my bath. I leapt in anyway, pretending it was a refreshing Hawaiian lagoon on a hot, humid, tropical rainforest day.I really did, actually. (how lame and a half)

So we Bohemian residents are all walking around today like little prematureforHalloween zombies,hair matted to our heads, lots of pony tails and baseball caps- some of us with a brisk step, for those who are braving these cold showers/baths.

I think it is enlightening and darn good for us to have to experience what a huge percentage of the world experiences on a daily basis.. those who don't have any water at all..or have filthy water.We are entirely spoiled and tend to see a clean warm, unlimited water supply as an entitlement..

When the firefighters arrived yesterday morning (the Bohemia fire alarms were sounding because of water and condensation in the mechanical room), one of them helped put it all in perspective when a lady- from a different apartment complex behind us- went off on them about the loud noise from our ongoing fire alarms, and how it was so annoying for them. The one Fire Guy kept reiterating 'well at least nobody's hurt , everyone is safe, that's a good thing'.

When the woman walked away miffed,he turned to us and explained that this type of complaint was so difficult to hear for him, he had a low tolerance for it -because recently he had been at a fire where another older woman had laid into them that their fire truck alarm had been left on , and the noise was too much for them to be exposed to.

But the reason the truck alarm was left on was that they were so focussed with tearing out of the truck to try to remove/ rescue a 7 yr old boy with a head and brain on fire, suffering increasingly massive head injuries as he was trapped in that burning building . And yet the woman kept complaining to the firefighter regardless.

We all get into our rut of how far our life expands out into, and for some people, any waves that alter the still calm they are trying to create for themselves are quite unbearable.

It is never close enough to some of us until it is upon us.

I say let's not wait for that, let's shift perspective before that happens.., while alternatively pleading with the gods to let's get this farkin' hot water restored tomorrow. But in a nice, non-threatening, humble and accepting 'whatever!' way..

As MJ reminded us.."we are the World"..